Samsung expects SSDs to match HDD prices

Anyone who’s ever found himself/herself drooling (what, is it just me?) over the latest and greatest SSDs will be glad to hear that SSD prices are expected to drop in the next few years. However, since the pricing is closely associated with flash memory prices, this means that flash memory will have to keep getting cheaper – and that, it seems, is currently the only thing hindering the price drops.

Samsung’s flash marketing manager, Brian Beard, explained how traditional hard disks have fixed prices for the spindles, heads, PCBs, etc., and that any additions benefiting speed or capacity of HDDs is not a significantly higher expense. On the other hand, SSD components are actually priced lower, but the production costs scale with capacity as getting more GBs means using more flash memory chips, in turn upping production cost.

While there is pressure on SSD manufacturers to match HDD pricing, Mr. Beard also added how flash memory prices have dropped to the point where chipmakers can’t make money, and since many reported hefty Q4 losses, you shouldn’t be expecting to see significant SSD price drops this year.